


Unusual tattoo requests and messy hair

by aleclightnerd



Series: Malec Drabbles [3]
Category: The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2019-07-20 05:10:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16130294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aleclightnerd/pseuds/aleclightnerd
Summary: Alec is a tattoo artist, Magnus is a hairdresser who wants a weird tattoo.





	Unusual tattoo requests and messy hair

**Author's Note:**

> This is my participation in Malec week 2015! For August 3rd, AU day. I only have the time to write one story, and I chose this one. Happy Malec Week, everyone! 
> 
> Warnings: None. Mentions of drinking, tattoos and haircuts?  
> Note: Written on 26/6. During the evening. When I was tired. (No regrets, though, this is the only way I’d get to participate in this.) 
> 
> Written in 2015, published on my blog and probably on FFN as well. Reposted on AO3.

**Unusual tattoo requests and messy hair.**

Alec hated working late nights, but at the same time he loved it. He hated it because frankly, he’d rather be at home watching a movie with Church, his cat, beside him. He loved it because it was during the evenings that drunk people walked in and asked for the most ridiculous tattoos. Alec worked at a tattoo shop in New York, close to other places that attracted people, like nightclubs and hair salons. He didn’t understand why drunk people didn’t go to the hair salon and ask for a ridiculous haircut instead of a tattoo on the buttcheeks, but he was payed for it so he did not complain. Also, it could be kind of tragically hilarious.

This was one of those nights. Alec, working in the salon with his co-worker Aline. Listening to music while browsing through their own catalogues. Aline was talking about this tattoo she was going to do on her girlfriend - Helene - when the door opened, and a small group of people walked in. They were all sober enough to note the glass door, which was a good sign. There had been times when customers had walked right into the glass door and almost broken a bone.

The people walking in were affected by  _ something _ , though. Alec would not be surprised if they had left the nightclub across the street just minutes ago. The group consisted of three people: two men, one woman. One of the men was walking at the front, and Alec could not help but notice how handsome he was. His face was covered in makeup, so on point that Alec wondered if a professional had done it. His sister was in the fashion business, so he had a clue regarding makeup to notice what was professional and what was made by a newbie. The man was also wearing clothes that was, to say the least, spectacular.

The other man was covered in green glitter and looked mildly amused, and the woman beside him had beautiful dark skin and, probably colored, white hair that stood in contrast to her skin. They were all beautiful, and Alec could hear Aline make a weird sound between him that he ignored.

“I’d like a tattoo,” the man in the lead said as he reached the counter.

“Of what, exactly?” Alec asked, pushing one of the catalogues closer to him.

“Your number would be nice, darling,” the stranger said with a smirk on his lips. Alec ignored him, and Aline beside him who made another sound that he would rather not have heard.

When the man understood that his horrible try of a pickup line did not work he leaned on the counter, closer to Alec and whispered: “I’d like a tattoo that says ‘ _ I have a third nipple _ ’!” He sounded excited, as if this was the best idea ever. Alec shared a glance with Aline, who was standing next to him. She almost started giggling, but managed to swallow the laughter.

“Are you sure?” Alec asked, because even though it would be a wonderful story to tell his friends that he had tattooed that on someone, he did not want this man to regret having those words on his body.

“Absolutely. I even have the font, and the perfect position!” he said, and started rolling up his sleeve. Alec was relieved that he was not asked to tattoo his butt - or worse.

The man, who introduced himself as Magnus Bane when Alec asked about his contact information - it was routine to do so - took up a printed piece of paper and put it on the table. The words were printed with a style that looked way too scene. Something that would be used on a young adult novel about vampires and dark, emo love.

“Are you sure you want to have this as a permanent tattoo?” Alec asked, looking up from the paper. “We have other things to offer, you know,” he continued when Magnus Bane simply stared at him.

“What other things?” he asked, sounding interested.

“Well, for starters, we have non permanent tattoos. I could make your tattoo with one of these,” he said, holding a steele - a simple tattoo instrument that not many other salons used - in his hand. “-and then you could come back in a few days, if you still want the tattoo then.”

Magnus threw a glance at his friends behind him, but they were not paying attention to his and Alec’s conversation. Both of them were browsing through tattoo magazines.

“Okay, deal,” Magnus then said, smiling at Alec from the other side of the counter. Alec nodded and got his supplies ready. Making a tattoo using a steele was way easier than making a real tattoo. A steele was really just a better version of a marker.

Magnus sat down in the chair and Alec followed him, sitting down on stool next to the chair.

“It’s not going to hurt, is it?” Magnus asked just as Alec was about to start the fake tattoo. “No, but a real tattoo would,” Alec said and started working.

Not more than fifteen minutes the text is done, an exact copy of the printed words Magnus showed Alec before. A real tattoo would, of course, have taken more time, but Alec was happy with his work. The fact that he just fake tattooed the words ‘ _ I have a third nipple _ ’ on a real person’s arm was amazing.

“Wow, this looks good!” Magnus said while inspecting the dark letters on his arm. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he promised, as if he still was 100 percent sure that he wanted a tattoo like that. Oh well, if he came by the next day Alec would have to give him a real tattoo. Maybe Magnus Bane was a person with poor judgement, drunk or not. Whatever it was, it was none of Alec’s business. When the customer and his friends left the salon Aline turned to Alec and started laughing with no end. This really had been a most interesting night.

 

. . . . .

 

Magnus Bane, the customer who wanted the words  _ ‘I have a third nipple’ _ to decorate his arm, did not come back. Alec supposed it was for the best - it showed that the man at least had some proper judgement left. After a few days he stopped thinking about it. After all, there were more than one hot stranger who wanted tattoos worth questioning. It wasn’t until a week after the incident that Alec was reminded of the man’s existence.

It began during his and Aline’s lunch break. They had decided to go out for food, because really, eating in the small space behind the salon sucked.

When Alec was enjoying his food, in the middle of putting a big piece of spaghetti in his mouth, Aline stared suspiciously at his hair. Alec noticed it, because really, she was staring as if horns had popped up beneath his messy hair.

“Do you get tattoos more often than you get a haircut, Alec?” she asked, and Alec stopped chewing his spaghetti with an offended look on his face. 

“Well, I don’t need may haircuts,” he said, but it was clear that Aline disagreed. Strongly disagreed.

“You’re going to the hair salon around the corner of the tattoo salon after this, okay?” Alec looked at her, not exactly convinced. “Or I’ll cut your hair myself. Or ask Isabelle to do it.”

That offer - no, threat - made Alec change his mind.

“Okay, I’ll go. It had been flying down in my eyes for a while now,” he said. Aline smiled, knowing that she had won. Alec ignored her proud smile as he continued to eat.

 

. . . . .

 

When he entered the hair salon he was met by the smell of hairspray and shampoo. It smelled like flowers, too, and Alec immediately regretted the fact that he had let Aline persuade him into getting a haircut. He hated this, having to hold a conversation with some stranger while they touched your hair. He was going to leave. Right this moment.

“Oh, you’re the guy who wouldn’t let me tattoo ‘ _ I have a third nipple _ ’ on my arm!” A vaguely familiar voice exclaimed, just when Alec was about to leave the hair salon. He realised that this sentence was directed to him - not many people in this room had probably been asked to tattoo such a thing on someone’s arm in the last days.

His eyes shot to the person saying it. It was a hair stylist, who was standing by a mirror, finishing up a redhead’s hair. Not just any hair stylist, though. It was the hairstylist who had wanted a very strange tattoo just days ago. It was Magnus Bane. Alec hadn’t been able to forget his name - he had thought that maybe, in a few months, he’d check him up ( _ check him up - not stalk… Or maybe stalk a little _ ). Just to know if he’d gotten the tattoo somewhere else. Now, so few days after their first meeting, he got the opportunity to do so.

“You didn’t get the tattoo,” Alec said, watching the man with the colorful clothes and sparkly hair. Magnus looked at him over his shoulder while blowing air on the redhead’s hair.

“No, the morning after I realised that it would have been a bad idea,” he said, looking back to the hair he was styling. “You should have tattooed your number on me, instead,” he continued, winking. Alec could see the wink only because he was staring at Magnus’s face in the mirror.

“Are you here to get a haircut?” Magnus asked. “Because you really need one, darling.”

Alec wasn’t sure whether to be offended by this or not. He decided not to, since it probably was clear that he suffered a great loss of hair cuts. Even Aline had pointed it out, and she was usually not the one to comment on such things.

“Yeah,” he said, one hand in his pocket, the other one awkwardly hanging by his side. “But you’re busy and I start work soon so I should probably-”

Before he could finish his made up excuse Magnus took the plastic blanket from the girl, spinned her around in the chair as to show that he was very done.

“Looks like the chair just got free,” he said, smiling.

“What about-” Alec began, but interrupted himself.

“Clary?” Magnus asked when Alec was silent for a second too long. “She’s done, anyways,” he said, laughing. The redhead - Clary - smiled too, and said something that sounded like ‘ _ You are in a desperate need of a haircut, man _ ’ under her breath.

“Okay then,” Alec said, and let himself be led to the chair. He sat down, and watching in the mirror as Magnus got all his supplies. 

Magnus ran his hands through his hair, and Alec couldn’t help but wish that it would last a little bit longer.

“I’ll give you the best haircut in Manhattan if you give me your number, deal?” Magnus said just before he took a scissor in his hands. Alec watched him for a moment, blue eyes meeting golden green in the mirror, and he felt his heart rush and his cheeks redden. He quickly looked away, down on his hands. He was nervous - but not in the uncomfortable  _ I’m gonna mess this up _ -way, but in the good way. The bubbly, childish, way. 

“I guess we have a deal,” he answered with a laugh, once again meeting Magnus’s eyes in the mirror. This time he didn’t look away. 

 


End file.
